Tesla has firmly established itself as the best-seller of luxury vehicles in the United States, with demand for its EVs soaring throughout the first half of 2022.
Between January and June this year, no less than 228,989 new Tesla models were registered in the United States, up from 142,543 in the first half of 2021. That places Tesla well ahead of BMW which reported 157,838 registrations for H1 2022, a 13 percent decline from the 180,783 registrations that it had in H1 2021.
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Positioned below BMW in the luxury sales race was Lexus with 133,616 registrations (down from 164,822 last year), Mercedes with 133,520 registrations (down from 155,878 last year), and Audi with 83,471 registrations, a massive decline from the 124,403 registrations it had in the first half of 2021.
Unsurprisingly, Tesla continues to dominate the electric vehicle market with a 68 percent share. The Tesla Model Y was the best-selling EV during the January-June 2022 period with approximately 103,215 examples being registered. That placed it ahead of the Tesla Model 3 with 97,075, the Ford Mustang Mach-E with 18,399, the Tesla Model S with 15,317, Tesla Model X at 13,382, and the Hyundai Ioniq 5 with 13,200 registrations.
The numbers from Experian reveal that Ford has doubled last year’s numbers, Kia has reported a six-fold increase in EV sales thanks largely to the Kia EV6, Hyundai’s EV sales spiked by 150 percent, Polestar enjoyed an eight-fold increase, and Audi’s sales of EVs climbed by 16 percent.
“These numbers show American consumers are becoming more and more aware that there are a lot of great EVs out there that aren’t Teslas,” AutoPacific industry analyst Robby DeGraff told Auto News. “Tesla’s growth is expected, but what’s more exciting to see is the fiery jump in sales for legacy automakers that have introduced new EVs onto the scene only recently.”
